It is the day after Veterans Day, a holiday originally set aside to commemorate the end of World War I, but was later generalized to honor all veterans who have served our country. Because it fell on Sunday, the banks, some schools and the delivery of the US Mail are shut down today. Courts too. There will be no decisions today. As of Veterans Day, 2007, it has been about four and a half months since Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy were hauled off to prison, and it has been about four months since emergency appeals were filed on their behalf, appeals that could free them while they await disposition of the appellate process that could take up to two years.
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Under the long shadow of a years-ago recusal of the US Attorney from the Middle District of Alabama, and just days away from the commencement of a Congressional hearing, Louis Franklin has yet again stepped up to defend and explain the integrity of his District. Almost two years since the indictment was unsealed, over a year after the District won a conviction and months after the defendants have been sent to prison, the prosecutors continue to defend their actions with denials and now childish name-calling instead of open, honest and forthright answers to legitimate questions. The latest proclamation takes aim at a broad range of the questioning voices, but Franklin’s statement is most likely meant to coincide with the publication of national print coverage in Time magazine. The tone and tenor of the various District proclamations has evolved over time regardless of who’s name appears at the top or bottom of the documents, and they appear to be the work of multiple authors. Just as reliable sources have said that the case was pushed from Washington over the early objections of the Middle District prosecutors, there now appears to be an unseen hand pulling the strings and speaking through Mr. Franklin. It would seem that even the most ardent hope-he-rots-in-prison Siegelman haters would want the clouds and fog that hover over the government’s investigation to be lifted. If everything was put on the table and it turned out that it was a righteous prosecution that was the end result of a forthright investigation, they could claim a victory for the American system of justice, and walk away. If nothing else, putting everything on the table would allow the people who are involved in the investigation and prosecution to quit making contradictory unnervingly absurd statements. Besides the bunker mentality that surrounds and protects the mechanism of the Siegelman prosecution, it is these statements that tend to underscore the official nervousness that is becoming increasingly apparent at the Middle District of Alabama, it is these statements that make it uncomfortable for even true believers of the means, methods and motives of the prosecutors, and it is these statements that fuel the very reasons why questions continue to be asked. |
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